The Record of Unusual Creatures

Nasaton, the City of Sirens had been a focal point of all otherworldling’s on Earth since the almost calamitous maelstrom incident. And plenty of news about the city spread about every alley across the globe. As time passed however, Nasaton’s stealthfield system had came back online and the city of the deep slowly drifted away from everyone’s attention. Now, only a few unverifiable rumours still floated about amongst a few otherworldling families. There were those that had managed to escape from Nasaton, and those previously enslaved by the mind controlled sirens had brought news with them. Some said that there was a big starship in the deep sea, some said that demon hunters and otherworldlings fought side by side, albeit temporarily, some even said that the beautiful sirens’ real form is a giant deep sea mantis shrimp, while some said that every full moon the sirens would turn into a sea of giant sea urchins…

Well, you would find all sorts of animals if a jungle is big enough, this sort of rumours would be beyond anyone’s control….

But the rumours floating about did not mean anything to the sirens in the deep. As soon as the stealth-field generator came back online, the sirens returned to their slow and steady lifestyle. Only until today did they needed to welcome their first group of guests after quite a while.

Hao Ren did not bring many people along this time around, aside from the four Nangongs, the dog, cat and fish at home, and also Vivian. The Nangongs were once citizens of Nasaton, and for them, it was like homecoming, and paying relatives a visit. As for the cat, dog and fish…. all of them had their own reasons. Lily was a husky, and that alone explained why she had to follow and join in the fun. Lil Pea was a fish, and that would explain why she had to follow into the sea to join in the fun. Rollie was a cat, and as soon as she heard Hao Ren was going to the sea she clung on to him like glue. Her main idea was that there were fishes in the sea…

That dumb cat had already forgotten the harrowing experience she had at Nasaton. Her brain is now divided into two parts. One for fish jerky, and another for fishes who have yet to be turned into jerky…

As for Vivian, she just wanted to visit Nasaton to relax. She definitely prefer to mingle with the peaceful sirens over the warring otherworldling families.

The deep sea was dark and quiet as usual. Nangong Wuyue and Ayesha had created a water bubble as they led the rest deep into the water. The MDT’s phantasmal blue light and Lily’s Flame-effing-joy lit the surrounding. Within the dim light, Hao Ren saw Lil Pea darting in and out of the water barrier as she happily swam about and waved at him. Rollie was on all fours by his leg, focusing outside the bubble for any passing fish. That dumb cat had accidentally hit Lil Pea twice already, and had earned a bump on her head for her troubles, but she did not seem like she was giving up any time soon.

She was confident that she could really catch a fish in deep sea.

Slowly, star-like lights started appearing faintly across the water and along the glow, a vast white sandy seabed extended forth. On the seabed were rows of neat and visible guiding lines. The outer rings of the City of the Deep, Nasaton soon appeared before them.

Ayesha who was in mermaid form could not help but dart forward as she saw the scene before swimming lithely back to the bubble. While she had already visited her kin twice within this period of time, she was still away from the deep for a few hundred years, and when she saw the familiar sights of Nasaton she could not help but being excited. Even Nangong Wudi, who was in the bubble adjusted his clothes, his movement a little clumsy. “I’m nervous.”

Hao Ren immediately chimed in. “That’s normal, especially when you visit your in-laws. First time awkward second time familiar, a few more visits and you’ll be fine!”

Nangong Wudi immediately threw Hao Ren an awkward look. “…. And you, the unmarried one is actually guiding me on this?”

Hao Ren crossed his arm. “You know my job right? I’m a bona fide clergy! My job in many places entails blessing formerly single men and women in union…”

Lily started scanning Hao Ren from head to toe. “Mr. Landlord, why does that seemingly normal thing came out sounding so wrong from your mouth?”

As the group bantered about, the bubble that they were in finally arrived before Nasaton’s great gate. The massive ancient starship on the seabed still looked as glorious as ever. The starship city’s energy barrier shone brightly and lit up the entire underwater world. Hao Ren came before the blastdoor of Nasaton and remembered his last trip here was incognito before tangling with a bunch of crazed sirens. But this time around, he was the guest of honor of the city. Life sure has its ways with the ups and downs.

Just as Hao Ren and the rest reached the blastdoor, the walls of Nasaton suddenly lit up in an array of lights before the sturdy alloy blastdoor opened with bubblejets shooting out of the opening door. Hao Ren smiled as he saw the scene. “That bunch of shut-ins actually spent time putting together a welcoming… Eh?”

Hao Ren did not manage to finish the sentence. As the blastdoor opened, a massive mantis shrimp came face to face with him, and the scene stunned him so much that he swallowed everything he was about to say back.

At the same time, many more giant shrimps and crabs surged out from the streets and everyone were seemingly jiving their way towards them. Amongst the crowd were seahorses, sea urchins, king squid and a school of sardines. What greeted Hao Ren immediately had him in cold sweat. Moments later, he saw even more oddly shaped items from afar, and these time around they were not even living beings. A torn oil tank, a spinning propeller, an anchor from who knows where, and two massive pirate galleons with skeletons on it swooped about from end to end!

The surge of bizzare items burst out from every corner of Nasaton toward Hao Ren and the rest. They sure had ‘variety’ down to the tee, and the only similarity was that the items could all be found in the ocean. Hao Ren then heard a crash of sounds that made him dizzy, and that was the sound of many different water currents converging and crashing against each other. Even the dumb cat was scared out of her wits by this terrifying sight and sound. The poor cats was so scared that her tail bristled and pointed straight towards the heavens. Letting out a fearful ‘meow’ she quickly scampered behind Hao Ren. “Nyaaa! I swear I won’t eat fish anymore!”

“What’s… the meaning of this?” Hao Ren somehow still managed to maintain his dignity as the head of the household, but he was still shocked by what he saw. He quickly grabbed Wuyue by the arm. “Your Queen never said anything about this did she?!”

But Nangong Wuyue was just as confused as Hao Ren was. Even though she was a siren, she was the weird one who had grown up on land, and this scene was totally beyond her. “H… How would I know?!”

Even Ayesha the purebred siren was no better. “Not only you, even I have never seen this before!”

As they spoke a giant crowd of bizzare monsters and misfits had converged before them. It was really a clutter of deep and shallow sea beings, living and non-living, metallic and plastic, just name anything and you would probably find one there. There were even two beer barrels with tails at the end of it bouncing about to add to the fun. Hao Ren scanned the area and realized that there were not one siren to be seen across Nasaton. And that was referring to the sirens who had maintained a humanoid form.

“Can someone explain what is going on?!” Hao Ren started panicking as he raised his voice. “Can someone get into human form to explain this to me?”

A giant mantis shrimp quickly swam towards him and poked Hao Ren by the arm with its pincer. After a few moments of poking did the siren realize something and quickly turned into a beautiful siren within a mist. “Oh oh! We are celebrating a festival!” A festival!”

Hao Ren looked attentively and realized that the siren was Shaqira, the one that came to the Southern Suburb’s water tank to heal herself, and the ‘messenger’ who triggered every event with the sirens that followed. Shaqira in her mermaid form was extremely lively as she swam about happily. Yet when Hao Ren was reminded of her mantis shrimp form, that elation quickly faded away…

“What are you guys celebrating?” Hao Ren asked reflexively. “What did I manage to join in?”

“Oh you’re well on time!” Shaqira snickered as she circled around Hao Ren. “We have recently catalogued some knowledge from the land and found the festivals created by humans were just too interesting! We are now celebrating Halloween!”

Hao Ren could not muster a response.

These group of shut-ins had certainly been doing it for far too long, none of them turned out normal!